The tree fruit industry harvests and stores its product in wooden bins which are usually 48".times.48".times.30" deep. There are two basic methods of processing and packing these tree fruits after harvest. One is "pre-size" and the other is "commit to pack".
Pre-size
Fruit is emptied from the bin, hand graded and electronically graded, and is then put in large water canals called flumes. After the proper amount of graded fruit is in the flume, it is released and goes to a water bin filler. Water is used as the cushion medium and the bruise level, even though high at times, has been accepted by pre-size operators simply because no alternative has surfaced.
The down side of this process is that only the largest packers can financially afford a "pre-size" plant. The capital investment is from $2.5 to $3.5 million.
Commit to Pack
Fruit is emptied from the bin, run through washing, waxing and grading machines, and is then packed into boxes containing one bushel. In this process, every acceptable piece of fruit is put into a finished or packed box. The packed boxes then go into storage or inventory. Most often, sales are only for a few sizes or grades. The packing house, therefore, incurs the expense of a large packed box inventory.
The ideal scenario would be to pack what has been sold, and re-bin the rest for bulk storage by size and grade, and then pack the product as it is sold.
By recognizing the large demand for a "gentle fruit-handling" high speed dry bin filler, the design disclosed herein has evolved.
The typical dry bin filler in the industry has the bin at floor level, and has to have the fruit lowered into it. These heights are up to four feet. These types of filers are not capable of handling the fruit without bruising the product.
The bin will rotate and the fruit is expected to roll to the periphery of the bin. Too much fruit movement results in bruising, which renders the fruit unsaleable.
The invention disclosed herein brings the bin to the fruit, and lays the fruit into the bin a complete layer at a time. This method insures positive control of the fruit, which enables this design to fill a bin with product that has not been bruised. This design also allows filling of the bin at a high rate of speed.